How Sweet! Honey’s a Hit With Gluten-Free Bakers

Honey is good for gluten-free baking because it increases the moisture content of your dough.

In theory this sounds pretty reasonable. Honey cakes are usually pretty moist, and the main problem with many gluten-free baked goods is that the dough is dry and crumbly.

Now, the board also claims that honey is especially suited for gluten-free baking because it adds, “exceptional sweetness.” I’m not sure that us gluten-free folks have a different-sized sweet tooth than others, but I won’t raise a fuss: the stuff is delicious and certainly better for you than processed sugar.

Of course, if the National Honey Board had just made this statement and sat back down, it wouldn’t be worth posting. Happily, they’ve also provided some interesting instructions about how to bake with honey, taken verbatim from Baking with Honey:

Honey’s acidic nature requires the addition of a small amount of baking soda (about 0.2 ounces or one teaspoon of baking soda per 12 ounces or one cup of honey).

Honey can replace up to one-half of the granulated sugar in a recipe, and in some bakery foods, honey can replace all of the sugar.

Reduce the liquid called for in a formulas by one-quarter cup (2 ounces) for each cup (12 ounces) of honey used.

When honey is added to a formula, reduce oven temperatures by 25°F to prevent over-browning.

But wait, there’s more! They’ve also written up a recipe for Gluten-free Honey Pound Cake, and while it’s scaled for industrial baking there’s no reason you couldn’t scale it back down to home-size.

Want to get your gluten-free honey fix some other way? Try one of these gluten-free recipes: